Wednesday, May 26, 2021

The USN’s first rotary-wing aerocraft, the Pitcairn XOP-1 autogyro, pictured in flight over the aircraft carrier Langley (CV 1) in 1931.

 


9 comments:

  1. No island and straight down the center line. Hell you could land a C-17 on that with the proper arresting gear.

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  2. Just wondering if that ship carried aircraft, I supposed it did, but where are they stored?

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    1. It didn't "store" planes. It had no hangar deck, the flight deck was little more than planks on scaffolding.

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  3. I found a picture that shows an elevator about 1/3 back from the bow in the flight deck, so below she had a hanger deck. She is about the same size as a WWII CVE but with a much narrower flight deck

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    1. Thanks, I didn't see that on this picture, so wondered.

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  4. Someone once asked, can we put a runway on a ship? Yes, why yes we can! And there it is, a runway on a ship!

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  5. Lots of photos of Langley here:

    https://www.navsource.org/archives/02/01.htm

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  6. Sailed until 1942 and sunk in WWII. Crazy.

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  7. Dang! I'll bet even Zero couldn't out-turn that thing!

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